Gospel Of Luke Essay

The Gospel of Luke is the most intentional in pointing out how Jesus continues the divine work of God with Israel and fulfills the message and promises of the Old Testament. In the opening words of his narrative, Luke provides assurance (Lk 1:4) that Israel’s story has been fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Luke opens the prologue of his Gospel by speaking of the fulfillment “πεπληροφορημένων” that has been brought about by Christ (Lk 1:1). Furthermore, Luke emphasizes and clarifies that he intends to go over the whole story from the beginning, in proper order, (Lk 1:3) to highlight how this story did not just start with the birth of Jesus. This is a story of the divine work of God with Israel that goes back all the way to Adam, runs through Abraham, is fulfilled through Jesus and is passed on into the life of the church (Lk 3:23-38). The Gospel of Luke begins by showing how the promises of the Old Testament are being fulfilled even prior to Christ’s incarnation, in order to prepare for His coming. We see this through the narration of the birth of John the Baptist as well as in the scene of the

Matthew is extremely interested in the divine work of God with Israel that he opens his Gospel with a genealogy (Matt 1:1-17). This genealogy affirms the continuity between Israel’s story and the story that Matthew is about to narrate. Although similar to what Luke does, Matthew’s approach is bolder because he opens up with the genealogy right away. The genealogy prepares the reader to interpret Jesus as the heir of the promises to Abraham, that began in Genesis. This is enforced in Matt 1:1 where the evangelist ties his Gospel to the first book of the Torah by saying that his Gospel is the book of the genesis of Jesus Christ, the new γενέσεως that speaks of the fulfillment of redemption that was promised to the